Share “Health and medical briefs, Dec. 30”

Health and medical briefs, Dec. 30

Health and medical briefs, Dec. 30

FROM STAFF REPORTS •
Published: December 30, 2012

Advertisement

Scientists win grant to study heart devices

Two Oklahoma researchers recently received a two-year $488,883 grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health. They will investigate changes in the function of platelets caused by implantable blood pumps used to treat severe heart failure. Trevor Snyder, Integris Baptist Medical Center research scientist, and David Schmidtke, University of Oklahoma associate professor and bioengineering program director, will investigate why some patients who receive ventricular assist devices, or VADs, experience episodes of bleeding. These devices can be used to keep people with failing hearts alive until a heart transplant becomes available or as an alternative to a heart transplant.